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News and Comments 5 Feb 2012

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Imprisoned student Abdullah Ould Kampala has begun a hunger strike after 3 sleepless nights in pain from broken ribs sustained during his arrest by police in a violent raid on Nouakchott University last Thursday. Abdullah is one of 5 students who remain in prison. About 45 classmates arrested in the raid were released on Saturday.

Mauritanian student prisoner Abdullah Ould Kampala

300 members of the civil guard attacked families who were camped out on the sidewalk after being evicted on Thursday in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

Evicted Families in Sao Paolo, Brazil

This tasteless advert for the Israel market is in the news again now Iran is threatening to ban Samsung.

Maybe Mali’s FM would have been less surprised by heavily-armed rebel attacks if France, America, etc shared intel from drone surveillance, which has been increased in the region since the war in Libya. As it is, we are being subjected to largely unconfirmed speculation about numbers of rebels, weapons and refugees. Intriguingly, we hear that members of the Malian army are among the refugees. Now we can expect to read lots of hype about rebels recruiting from the camps. We can also anticipate lots of appeals for funds to care for tens of thousands of displaced people, being shuffled around a region already dealing with drought and food shortages. Added revulsion will be delivered in the form of reports of rape, and of illegal trafficking of drugs, weapons and people. Inevitably there will be outbreaks of sickness – perhaps even imported by UN aid workers, as we saw with the outbreaks of Cholera in Haiti for the past two years. An entire global industry has been quietly readying itself for this situation for at least the past few months, and it will now grind up, one relentless gear at a time.

Perhaps most disturbing of all is my firm conviction that all of the above will be a mere backdrop for events in the rest of Africa.

04 Feb 2012 Malian Refugees in Niger

Egyptian officials say Hosni Mubarak will shortly be moved to a prison hospital as soon as the facility is upgraded to house the 83-year-old former president. I don’t suppose they trouble themselves to upgrade facilities for arrested protesters or those working for “NGO’s”.

Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak lying on a stretcher inside a cell in a courtroom in Cairo. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Rather unpleasant C4 post questioning whether autism can be used as hacking defence, and worded in a way that insinuates Gary McKinnon only “sought” a diagnosis for autism after being charged with computer hacking. http://snup.us/qBi

Gary McKinnon with his mother, Janis Sharp, who says a review into the extradition law concerning his US computer hacking case is a whitewash. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

#22Bahman is approaching (Sat 11 Feb). I expect I’ll see all sorts of frustrating nonsense about #Iran this week. By “nonsense” I include the regime continuing to escalate its campaign of arrests, but I also refer to the revolting habit of competing opposition groups trying to undermine each other’s campaigns.

I dread to see poor Sakineh Ashtiani’s case being used as a political platform again, so I shuddered to see one of the two German freelancers that entered Iran on tourist visas intending to interview Ashtiani’s son, speaking out for the first time since they were freed last year. tw: http://snup.us/qDk He stops short of describing being sexually abused in prison but the implication is clear enough to anyone unfortunate enough to have read a few reports from former prisoners.

My least favourite sport at this time of year is reading the posts from activists in the diaspora entreating people in Iran to “lose their fear” and “not be silent” (being Iranian, of course someone else will quickly decide that only a silent protest will do) and claiming that this or that “coordination committee” has declared that there must be a protest. As ever, the only sensible response to all of these suggestions is to agree wholeheartedly, and to promise faithfully to be there on the street, ready to walk behind the author and support their protest, silent or otherwise.

With so much to complain about, being constantly grumpy has its advantages!

One of several competing efforts to form a united opposition to #Iran has met in secret, according to Mohsen Makhmalbaf, who claims he was was there. Maybe they should have reminded him about the “secret” part. tw: [Fa] http://bit.ly/wj1WYo